< Last Photo   << Last Chapter                Notes on the Geography of Places: Morocco: Tangier         Next Chapter >>   Next Photo > 

Notes on the Geography of Morocco: Tangier

How far back do you want to go? Roman Tingi or even more distant Berber Tanja? Maybe not that far. Settle on the Portuguese. Always first among Europeans scouting Africa, they arrived in 1471 and had a good run, yielding to the English by a royal marriage in 1661. The English hardly stayed a generation, leaving in 1684, and a cosmopolitan community began evolving especially after 1787 and at the invitation of a sultan who wisely preferred keeping foreigners on the coast to having them inland with him at Fez or Marrakesh.

A few years later, in 1821, the sultan of the day gave a house to James Monroe, and until 1956 it served, with many modifications, as an American consulate. By then, and under the terms of an Algeciras Conference of 1906, Tangier had become an international protectorate, nominally under a sultan but in fact ruled by a French governor and a legislature stacked with three Europeans for every Moroccan. The city remained a den of uninhibited and frolicking foreigners until 1956. With the end of the protectorate in that year, the disappointed Europeans began leaving. Decades passed before a stream of thin-gruel tourists grew to profitable dimensions.

More history than you can stand? But wait, there's more!

Make default image size larger

Morocco: Tangier picture 1

Fortunately, this is a geographical website, so we can skip to this handsome Army Map Service sheet from 1943. <

Squint at the medina, or old city, and you'll make out two main streets, one running approximately east-west and the other, more tortured, snaking north-south. Welcome to Roman town planning, messed up by two thousand years. The east-west street, now called the Rue des Siaghins (the street of silversmiths, of whom there are none left),is the Roman decumanus. The north-south street, now called the Rue des Almohades, is the Roman cardo maximus. They cross at what once was a Roman forum and is still a wide patch in the road. You can see the comedy skit: a Roman engineer returns to the city today and throws an absolute fit.

We'll begin with a look at the walls, then venture into the medina. Nothing is not systematic: that's my motto.

Morocco: Tangier picture 2

If you imagine the old city as a clockface, we're at about 4 o'clock. The harbor and the waterside road (the Avenue Mohamed VI, formerly the Avenida de Espana) are behind us; in front is the Rue du Portugal. Why Portugal, you ask? Have you forgotten already? Remember: when it comes to the coasts of Africa, the Portuguese were always here first. Good 'ol Vasco, the savage.

The steep staircase is a reminder that the walls have been mostly ornamental for a long time.

Morocco: Tangier picture 3

Maintaining them isn't cheap. It's like the proverbial bridge painters, forever at work.

Morocco: Tangier picture 4

How do you suppose they climbed up there? Think they have workmen's comp?

Morocco: Tangier picture 5

Some of the walls are overdue.

Morocco: Tangier picture 6

Others are in good shape, including this one near the east end of the old decumanus.

Morocco: Tangier picture 7

Boom! The Armstrong gun is a reminder that security in the past was a real issue. The view here, from the Borj Dar al_Baroud, is just east of the last picture. No, that's not Gibraltar in the distance, it's just a point on the coast a bit east of Tangier. You'll have to wait to catch a view of Spain.

Morocco: Tangier picture 8

Here's a bit of the wall in fine shape, though no longer one accustomed to putting up much of a fight.

Morocco: Tangier picture 9

No gates survive, just openings like this one, leading to the Hotel Continental.

Morocco: Tangier picture 10

It opened in 1865 and has a fine but completely unprotected view of the harbor.

Morocco: Tangier picture 11

We'll come up to 11 o'clock and the Bab Casbah, the gate for the sultan's palace.

Morocco: Tangier picture 12

Inside there's a parking area glamorized as the Place du Tabor Espagnol or "Spanish drum." On the far side is the Borj Naam, with more Armstrong guns just over the wall and a view of the western approach to Gibraltar. The tower on the left, grim but now a Tangerine icon, is an abandoned World War II weather station.

Morocco: Tangier picture 13

The perfect paint job is a tipoff. We're in the car park that used to be the parade ground of the sultan's palace. It's called the Place du Mechouar, the place for petitioning the government.

Morocco: Tangier picture 14

If we headed downhill from the Place du Mechouar, we'd pass this now-dry Seqaya or Fountain at the Bab el Assa. How much more appealing it would be with water! Is the world really so much drier now?

Morocco: Tangier picture 15

Instead, we'll go into the palace, which isn't very inviting but which was never much lived in anyway. Rebuilt in 1889, it was occupied by Sultan Moulay Hassan I for five years. His successor, Abdelaziz, moved in but was deposed 10 years later by a half-brother, Abdelhafid, who himself moved in only to abdicate four years later and move to France. Game over.

Morocco: Tangier picture 16

It's an almost-new building, in other words, and not much softened by occupation. Still, the courtyard is pleasant, with white marble columns.

Morocco: Tangier picture 17

The paving is made of locally famous tiles from Tetuan, about 40 miles to the southeast.

Morocco: Tangier picture 18

It's a place for school excursions.

Morocco: Tangier picture 19

The immediate neighborhood is perhaps more interesting.

Morocco: Tangier picture 20

Freshly renovated door of the casbah mosque--locked.

Morocco: Tangier picture 21

Could the inside be any more impressive?

Morocco: Tangier picture 22

The tomb of Sidi Berraisoul, made famous by Matisse. (Domes here are characteristic of tombs, not mosques.)

Morocco: Tangier picture 23

There's a boutique hotel up here, right on the city wall.

Morocco: Tangier picture 24

The view from the hotel is over the Borj Na'am with its Armstrong gun. That's the Atlantic out there.

Morocco: Tangier picture 25

Great view.

Morocco: Tangier picture 26

View in the other direction, over the medina sloping downhill from here, with the modern city beyond. See the yellow building on the right, almost perched atop a chimney?

Morocco: Tangier picture 27

Here it is again, zoomed. It's about 600 meters from the camera, with the intervening, red minaret of the Sidi bou-Abid mosque. The building partly obscured by palms at the far right is the Villa de France Hotel, of which more momentarily. The intervening mini-forest is the garden of the Mendoubia; during the period of the international protectorate, the mendoub was the personal representative of the sultan. Over on the left margin and below the Cinema Rif, some palms stand in the Place du 9 April 1947, of which, again, more momentarily.

Morocco: Tangier picture 28

Here they are in fact, standing in the much-tidied-up square, colloquially called the Grand Socco, alias the Nouveau Marchais (as per Baedeker's 1901 guide to Spain). The awkward name Place 9 Avril 1947 recalls the speech in 1947 when Mohamed V dared to call for an end to the Protectorate. The French, suffering no nonsense, promptly banished him to Madagascar. He returned in 1955, a year before the return of Tangier to full Moroccan sovereignty. The city at that time had 150,000 people, including 42,000 foreigners, who, the air escaping their balloon, gradually left.

There's an archway into the medina. We'll head down there in just a moment. But first turn around.

Morocco: Tangier picture 29

Here's the Villa de France, closed for about 20 years before reopening in 2014. The corner room up top, Room 35, was where Matisse stayed in 1912.

Morocco: Tangier picture 30

View from that room, with the Mendoubia garden on the left and the medina rising behind it. Most of this scene appears in "Paysage vu d'une Fenêtre," the left panel of Matisse's Moroccan Triptych.

For more, see Jack Cowart, et al., "Matisse in Morocco: The Paintings and Drawings, 1912-1913, 1990.

Morocco: Tangier picture 31

The arch leads to the Rue de Saghins. The motorcycle is parked in front of the Seqaya or Fountain Siaghin, another dried-up fountain. According to Baedeker in 1901, this street was then called the Rue des Chretiens. We'll just call it the decumanus and be done with it.

Morocco: Tangier picture 32

But here's why it might have been called the Street of the Christians. The church of the Immaculate Conception or la Purisima is the only church in this or any other Moroccan medina. It's from the late 19th century, and drat if it's not locked, too.

Morocco: Tangier picture 33

So is this, the Dar Niaba, next door. In the 19th century this was the French consulate, and pictures show that inside there's a gracefully proportioned courtyard with double-stacked arcades. There should be a little graffito: "Delacroix slept here." That would have been 1832. Sounds a long time ago, but the entrance dates from the Portuguese period, and the Portuguese had already been gone for almost two centuries before Mr. D. arrived. The French left for new accommodation in 1860, and the building has been used since by the Moroccan government.

Morocco: Tangier picture 34

The striking thing is that, like the medina of Casablanca, the buildings in Tangier's medina are often obviously European. Nothing Islamic or Maghrebian about them. The only thing more striking is that you can walk around half a day or more without noticing this fact. Call it testimony either to the power of fatigue or the power of street layouts, more dominating even that the buildings along the street.

Morocco: Tangier picture 35

Now here's something that looks Islamic. From the windows above, it's obviously of European vintage. No matter: tourists aren't particular.

Morocco: Tangier picture 36

See the blue door?

Morocco: Tangier picture 37

It leads into a courtyard.

Morocco: Tangier picture 38

Lined with shops, it's the Fondaq or Inn Siaghins, now shops. Call it a deeper fusion of styles, European and Islamic.

Morocco: Tangier picture 39

This is the Petit Socco or Souk Dakhli or, in Roman times, the forum. It's a little grim, and not just from the wretched exposure. Blame the camera.

Morocco: Tangier picture 40

Shall we walk up the cardo?

Morocco: Tangier picture 41

No better way to get a bit more floor space than to cantilever the upper floors.

Morocco: Tangier picture 42

Bit of a contradiction here: why carry water when there are obviously water mains?

Morocco: Tangier picture 43

Blind alleys, or adarves, lead only to private houses. Judging from the potted plants, water can't be terrifically expensive.

Morocco: Tangier picture 44

Wow! The tomb of the supreme traveler, the 14th century Ibn Battuta, he of Ar-Rihla, or the Travels. It's locked, but this being the 21st century there's a phone number to call. Now we just need a cell phone. Or more to the point, just need to know how to use it. Life's too short.

Morocco: Tangier picture 45

At about 8 o'clock on our little imaginary clockface, this is the roof of the meat market. The photo was taken from a window in the Musee Lorin synagogue.

Morocco: Tangier picture 46

Just a reminder that this is a functioning city, not just a tourist stop.

Morocco: Tangier picture 47

I told the to stop their bleating.

Morocco: Tangier picture 48

Culture you want, culture we have. This is the American Legation, functioning from to 1821 to 1956. The reception room over the street was one of many later additions, in this case added before 1850. Legation no more, it's now run by a private organization renting the space from Uncle Sam and using it as a center for Moroccan studies.

Morocco: Tangier picture 49


Morocco: Tangier picture 50


Morocco: Tangier picture 51

Look up.

Morocco: Tangier picture 52

It's all very civilized, but later additions became capital "A" Authentic, like this building from the 1920s. The great seal is a little incongruous but makes American breasts swell a tad.

Morocco: Tangier picture 53

We're peeping under the Bab Merican. No translation needed, but what's that across the street?

Morocco: Tangier picture 54

There's the American Gate once again, and these are tombs in a Jewish cemetery. We're at about five o'clock and at a point where the city wall is nominal.

Morocco: Tangier picture 55

The cemetery space is much coveted by developers, but so far it's been left alone. It might disappear one day, just as did the Portuguese fort whose site the cemetery occupies.

Discursus time: Tangier was unusual in having many Jews but no Jewish quarter or mellah. How many? In 1860, there were 10,000 people in Tangier, including 2,500 Jews. By 1919, Tangier had 70,000 people, including 15,000 Jews and a dozen synagogues. The first had been built in the later 17th century, when the city was run by the English. After 1956, the Jewish population made a beeline for Israel.

Morocco: Tangier picture 56

Let's walk clockwise. Blacksmith with a plastic pail of sheep horns.

Morocco: Tangier picture 57

A minute's walk from the Grand Socco, this is the Casa Barata souq, hard up against the wall of St. Andrew's Anglican church.

Morocco: Tangier picture 58

Over on the right is the German cemetery formerly part of the Mendoubia garden.

Morocco: Tangier picture 59

Market women include Berbers is Berber dress.

Morocco: Tangier picture 60

Here's St. Andrew's, from 1885.

Morocco: Tangier picture 61

Mosques sometimes look like churches (try the Grand Mosque in Saint-Louis, Senegal), but here's a church that, though shaped like a church, is trimmed with Andalusian details by craftsmen from Fez.

Morocco: Tangier picture 62

Ceiling over the altar.

Morocco: Tangier picture 63

Panel behind the altar.

Morocco: Tangier picture 64

It wouldn't be an Anglican church without memorials.

Morocco: Tangier picture 65

Brothers? No: father and son. The son was born in Nyasaland, where his father worked, and at age 26 was part of the Stalag Luft III escape, for which the Gestapo shot him. His father had retired to Tangier years earlier; the CMG had been awarded in 1929.

Morocco: Tangier picture 66

Outside the church, a handsome Celtic cross.

Morocco: Tangier picture 67

Some Commonwealth war graves.

Morocco: Tangier picture 68

A minute's walk to the graves in the former Mendoubia garden.

Morocco: Tangier picture 69

Dr. Severo Cenarro was a Spanish army doctor instrumental in the creation of the Tangier Hygiene Commission, responsible for the city's water mains and sewers.

Morocco: Tangier picture 70

A German resident minister; it was a later visit of the kaiser to Tangier that prompted the European powers to make Tangier an international protectorate. They feared that otherwise the Germans would seize it and join it to the other bits of their African empire.

Morocco: Tangier picture 71

We've come uphill to the Plaza de Franzia, where the Gran Cafe de Paris opened in 1920 to become a literary hangout for Paul Bowles, Jean Genet, and Tennessee Williams.

Morocco: Tangier picture 72

We're in the domain of European mansions.

Morocco: Tangier picture 73

Another example.

Morocco: Tangier picture 74

Hard to see, but on the map up top this is labelled "British Consulate General." (The nearby hotel on the map is the Villa de France.)

Morocco: Tangier picture 75

View from the other side.

Morocco: Tangier picture 76

Across the street there's another dry fountain.

Morocco: Tangier picture 77

Reginald Lister (1865-1912) was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary in 1908, having previously been posted to Berlin, Paris, Athens, Copenhagen and Istanbul.

Morocco: Tangier picture 78

Let's drop all the way down to the waterfront Rue de Espana and, in the foreground, the Terrace Renschhausen.

Morocco: Tangier picture 79

Here are the steps up to it.

Morocco: Tangier picture 80

And its expanse, with the medina rising behind.

Morocco: Tangier picture 81

Here's the Renschhausen Building full-on. It dates from the 1930s and may have been funded by A. Renschhausen, German consul in nearby Larache.

Morocco: Tangier picture 82

NOtice the black signboards, a bit like blackboards? I see at least three.

Morocco: Tangier picture 83

Talk about an extensive network: from Europe to the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Packet boats were small vessels used for passengers, freight, and mail.

Morocco: Tangier picture 84

Back when steamships really were steam ships.

Morocco: Tangier picture 85

A Dutch line. Just as the Messageries Maritime survives in a later incarnation as the unpronounceable CGM CMA, this Dutch company, created in 1883, was merged into Nedlloyd.

Morocco: Tangier picture 86

A few blocks brings us to the Grand Cervantes Theater, built by Manuel Pena for his wife Esperanza Orellana. That's the story anyway, though the money was hers. The architect was Diego Jimenez Armstrong (1884-1918), whose father had married an Englishwoman named Armstrong. This was the city's premier venue, with Caruso popping in.

Morocco: Tangier picture 87

Quasi-Greek reliefs.

Morocco: Tangier picture 88

Seating 1,400, it's been abandoned for over 30 years. It remains the property of the Spanish government but seems likely to deteriorate beyond repair. No matter: we have Netflix.

Morocco: Tangier picture 89

Armstrong had lots of other commissions, including many apartment buildings--even sets of them--in the latest style.

Morocco: Tangier picture 90

Whatever Deco's shortcomings, you have to prefer it to the still newer blocks coming up in the expanding city.

Morocco: Tangier picture 91

If I didn't tell you this was Tangier, you wouldn't have a clue. But I shouldn't complain: I wear jeans and T-shirts.

Morocco: Tangier picture 92

The latest and greatest.

Morocco: Tangier picture 93

The usual suspects.

Morocco: Tangier picture 94

There's modern infrastructure, too.

Morocco: Tangier picture 95

It includes ferries to Tarifa, Spain, but you knew that from one of the Bourne movies.

Morocco: Tangier picture 96

Here's the breakwater protecting the ferry terminals, but what are those curious holes?

Morocco: Tangier picture 97

They're Punic-Roman tombs, buried in debris until discovered in 1965.

Morocco: Tangier picture 98

There are lots of them.

Morocco: Tangier picture 99

And here, zoomed from the spot, is Spain, some 20 miles away.

Morocco: Tangier picture 100

There are lots of ships passing by, and until modern navigation aids came along they relied on lighthouses like this one, five miles west of Tangier and at the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. It's the Cape Spartel light, first lit in 1864, three years before a light was lit at Cap Manuel, Dakar.
